Two sides
The National News Media's Effect on Congress: How Fox News Affected Elites in Congress
Joshua Clinton & Ted Enamorado
Journal of Politics, October 2014, Pages 928-943
Abstract:
Despite the prominence of the national news media, it is unclear whether elected officials are affected by the national news media in policy-consequential ways because of the difficulty of disentangling the influence of the media on Congress from Congress's influence on the media. We use a unique opportunity to determine whether position-taking behavior in Congress and the likelihood of reelection is affected by the national news media. Using the fact that the Fox News Channel spread gradually across the United States after being launched in October of 1996 in ways unrelated to the ideology of congressional districts and the incumbent representatives, we show that representatives become less supportive of President Clinton in districts where Fox News begins broadcasting than similar representatives in similar districts where Fox News was not broadcast. Moreover, the effects took a few years to be realized, and the entry of Fox News in a district did not appear to affect which representatives were reelected. Consistent with theories emphasizing the anticipatory actions taken by elected officials to maximize their electoral security in the face of changing electoral conditions, our results suggest that the national media may slightly affect the prospects for policy change by altering representatives' expectations and the positions that they take.
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Riccardo Puglisi & James Snyder
Journal of the European Economic Association, forthcoming
Abstract:
We measure the relative ideological positions of newspapers, voters, interest groups, and political parties, using data on ballot propositions. We exploit the fact that newspapers, parties, and interest groups take positions on these propositions, and the fact that citizens ultimately vote on them. We find that, on average, newspapers in the United States are located almost exactly at the median voter in their states - that is, they are balanced around the median voter. Still, there is a significant amount of ideological heterogeneity across newspapers, which is smaller than the one found for interest groups. However, when we group propositions by issue area, we find a sizable amount of ideological imbalance: broadly speaking, newspapers are to the left of the state-level median voter on many social issues, and to the right on many economic issues. To complete the picture, we use two existing methods of measuring bias and show that the news and editorial sections of newspapers have almost identical partisan positions.
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The Subjective Well-Being Political Paradox: Happy Welfare States and Unhappy Liberals
Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn, Oscar Holmes & Derek Avery
Journal of Applied Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Political scientists traditionally have analyzed the effect of politics on subjective well-being (SWB) at the collective level, finding that more liberal countries report greater SWB. Conversely, psychologists have focused primarily on SWB at the individual level and shown that being more conservative corresponds in greater SWB. We integrate the theoretical foundations of these 2 literatures (e.g., livability and system justification theories) to compare and contrast the effects of country- and individual-level political orientation on SWB simultaneously. Using a panel of 16 West European countries representative of 1,134,384 individuals from 1970 to 2002, we demonstrated this SWB political paradox: More liberal countries and more conservative individuals had higher levels of SWB. More important, we explored measurement as a moderator of the political orientation-SWB relationship to shed some light on why this paradox exists. When orientation is measured in terms of enacted values (i.e., what the government actually does), liberalism corresponds in higher SWB, but when politics is measured in terms of espoused values (i.e., what individuals believe), greater conservatism coincided in higher SWB.
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Jin Wook Chang, Nazlı Turan & Rosalind Chow
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Group members typically prefer leaders who have characteristics or attitudes that are in line with group norms (i.e., are normative). In this paper, we explore the possibility that in highly competitive inter-group contexts, group members prefer leaders who can more effectively differentiate the in-group from out-groups, leading to a preference for leaders with more extreme attitudes that are in line with group norms (i.e., pro-normative). In three experiments conducted in an election context in the United States, we find that both Democrats' and Republicans' preference for an extreme leader increases under conditions of high inter-group competition. Results indicate that participants' heightened need to differentiate their political party from the competing party drives this effect, and that this effect is stronger for those who identify strongly with their political party. Implications for group members' responses to in-group deviance and leadership support are discussed.
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Persuading Partisans: Targeted Moral Reframing Facilitates Political Influence
Matthew Feinberg & Robb Willer
Stanford Working Paper, June 2013
Abstract:
Political psychologists find that political attitudes are often grounded in moral convictions and, when they are, such attitudes are uniquely rigid and resistant to change. Here, we argue that the tight link between morality and politics also offers a path to political persuasion. Applying Moral Foundations Theory (e.g., Graham, Haidt, Nosek, 2009), we test whether reframing political views in terms of moral convictions endorsed by the target of the message will lead the target to be more supportive of positions he or she would typically oppose, thus offering a mechanism for morally-based political persuasion. Results showed that conservatives supported same-sex marriage (Study 1), universal health care (Study 2), and the re-election of Barack Obama (Study 4) more when arguments supporting these more liberal positions were presented in terms of moral convictions endorsed at higher levels among conservatives (loyalty, authority, and purity). Liberals supported high levels of military spending (Study 3) and making English the official language of the United States (Study 5), traditionally conservative positions, more when arguments for these positions were presented in terms of fairness and equality, values endorsed more by liberals. Mediation and moderation analyses from Studies 3-5 suggest that the reframed moral appeals were persuasive at least in part because they increased the apparent agreement between these political positions and the targeted individuals' moral values.
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The Big Tent Effect: Descriptive Candidates and Black and Latino Political Partisanship
Christopher Stout & Jennifer Garcia
American Politics Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this study, we assess whether Blacks and/or Latinos are more likely to identify with political parties that nominate a U.S. House candidate who shares their race/ethnicity using the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES). Our results indicate that Blacks are more likely to identify with both the Democratic and Republican Party when they nominate successful Black candidates for the House of Representatives. To assess the temporal order of the relationship, we examine the differences in Black Democratic partisanship before and after Obama's election to the White House and changes in Republican partisanship among Blacks in districts before and after the nomination of a successful Black Republican candidate. In combination, we find that both political parties can make gains in the Black community through the nomination of co-racial candidates. While descriptive candidates consistently influence Black partisanship, we find that Latino partisanship is not significantly affected by the presence of co-ethnic candidates.
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Going Along Versus Getting it Right: The Role of Self-Integrity in Political Conformity
Kevin Binning et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
People often conform to the opinions of ingroup members, even when available evidence suggests the group is misinformed. Following insights from the social identity approach and self-affirmation theory, it was hypothesized that people conform to salient opinions in an effort to maintain global self-integrity. In a series of experiments examining Americans' approval of President Obama and his policies, approval was consistently swayed by normative information (national polling data) but not by evidentiary information (indicators of national economic health), except under theory-predicted conditions. When participants had satisfied their sense of self-integrity with a self-affirmation exercise (Democrats in Study 1, Republicans in Study 2), or when they had low levels of American identification and thus were less concerned with national norms (Democrats and Republicans in Study 3), they showed the opposite pattern and were swayed by evidence in spite of contradicting normative information. The extent to which people are influenced by norms versus evidence in political judgment is shaped by social identity, one aspect of self-integrity. The results highlight a social psychological means to attenuate and potentially reverse conformity in the face of contradicting evidence, a finding with both practical and theoretical implications.
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Geography, Uncertainty, and Polarization
Nolan McCarty et al.
Princeton Working Paper, August 2014
Abstract:
Using new data on roll-call votes and public opinion in U.S. state legislative districts, we explain how ideological polarization within districts can lead to legislative polarization. Many of the seemingly 'moderate' districts that switch hands between Democrats and Republicans are internally polarized. The ideological distance between Democrats and Republicans within these districts is often greater than the distance between liberal cities and conservative rural areas. We present a theoretical model in which intra-district ideological polarization causes candidates to be uncertain about the ideological location of the median voter, thereby reducing their incentives for platform moderation. We then demonstrate that in otherwise identical districts, the difference in roll-call voting behavior between Democratic and Republican state legislators is a function of within-district ideological heterogeneity. Our findings suggest that accounting for the subtleties of political geography can help explain the coexistence of a polarized legislature and a moderate mass public.
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Aaron Scherer, Paul Windschitl & Jesse Graham
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research on political stereotypes has focused on the perceived moral values or political attitudes of conservatives and liberals. The current studies examined whether laypeople hold stereotypes about the psychological traits of Republicans and Democrats and whether those stereotypes represent exaggerations of actual political differences. Participants completed measures of epistemic (Study 1), existential (Study 2), and ideological (Study 2) motives. Participants also completed these measures based on how they thought the average Republican and average Democrat would respond. Consistent with previous research, Republicans scored higher on these measures of motivated social cognition than Democrats. Critically, political stereotypes about Democrats and Republicans mirrored, but exaggerated, the actual differences. Despite an overall tendency of participants to engage in stereotype exaggeration, Democrats engaged in greater stereotype exaggeration compared to Republicans, and partisans (individuals who strongly identified with either party) engaged in greater stereotype exaggeration compared to more moderate party members.
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Linking Genes and Political Orientations: Testing the Cognitive Ability as Mediator Hypothesis
Sven Oskarsson et al.
Political Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent research has demonstrated that genetic differences explain a sizeable fraction of the variance in political orientations, but little is known about the pathways through which genes might affect political preferences. In this article, we use a uniquely assembled dataset of almost 1,000 Swedish male twin pairs containing detailed information on cognitive ability and political attitudes in order to further examine the genetic and environmental causes of political orientations. Our study makes three distinct contributions to our understanding of the etiology of political orientations: (1) we report heritability estimates across different dimensions of political ideology; (2) we show that cognitive ability and political orientations are related; and (3) we provide evidence consistent with the hypothesis that cognitive ability mediates part of the genetic influence on political orientations. These findings provide important clues about the nature of the complex pathways from molecular genetic variation to political orientations.
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The Paradoxes of Politics in Colorado Springs
Joshua Dunn
The Forum, August 2014, Pages 329-342
Abstract:
Despite being known as the "Evangelical Vatican," politics in Colorado Springs is more pluralistic, and interesting, than its reputation suggests. The city is overwhelmingly conservative, but all major factions of modern conservatism - social, economic, and defense-related - have a significant presence in the city, leading to unusual controversies among them and with the city's erstwhile liberals. Three paradoxes reveal the more complicated nature of this politics: 1) even though Colorado Springs is a bastion of evangelicalism, it is a largely secular city; 2) it loathes but is simultaneously dependent on the federal government; and 3) its social conservatives exercise more power nationally than locally.
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Political and Cultural Dimensions of Tea Party Support, 2009-2012
Andrew Perrin et al.
Sociological Quarterly, Fall 2014, Pages 625-652
Abstract:
The Tea Party Movement (TPM) burst onto the political scene following the 2008 elections. Early on, the movement attracted broad public support and seemed to tap into a variety of cultural concerns rooted in the changing demographic, political, and economic face of the nation. However, some observers questioned whether the Tea Party represented anything more than routine partisan backlash. And what had started as a seemingly grassroots movement that changed the face of American politics in the 2010 election was reduced to being mainly a caucus within Congress by 2012. In this article, we examine the cultural and political dimensions of Tea Party support over time. Using polling data from North Carolina and Tennessee and quantitative media analysis, we provide new evidence that cultural dispositions in addition to conservative identification were associated with TPM favorability in 2010; that these dispositions crystallized into shared political positions in 2011; and that by 2012 little distinguished TPM adherents from other conservatives.
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The Impact of Partisan Sponsorship on Political Surveys
Roger Tourangeau, Stanley Presser & Hanyu Sun
Public Opinion Quarterly, Summer 2014, Pages 510-522
Abstract:
Although it is widely believed that revealing the topic or sponsor of a survey to potential respondents can produce large nonresponse biases, measurement errors, or both, recent research has shown that the effects of the framing of the survey request are often quite modest. However, research has not experimented with partisan or candidate sponsors, which are most likely to produce large effects. We carried out three experiments with political surveys that varied whether a partisan sponsor was identified (and in one of the experiments also varied the identity of that sponsor), expecting that this would have dramatic effects. Instead, all three studies found only minor effects. Thus, even in the context of partisan election surveys, sponsorship may not be the powerful cue it is often thought to be.
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Mobilizing Marginalized Groups among Party Elites
Seth Masket, Michael Heaney & Dara Strolovitch
The Forum, August 2014, Pages 257-280
Abstract:
The Democratic Party has long used a system of caucuses and councils to reach out to marginalized groups among convention delegates. This article tests two hypotheses about how this system works within the party. First, the Parties in Service to Candidates Hypothesis holds that caucuses and councils mobilize elites from marginalized groups to increase support for the party nominee. Second, the Group Solidarity Hypothesis holds that caucuses and councils mobilize elites from marginalized groups to enhance group solidarity. Regression analysis of data drawn from an original survey of delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention provides no support to the Service Hypothesis, while the evidence supports the Solidarity Hypothesis in the case of the Women's Caucus, which became a rallying point for women who were disappointed that Hillary Clinton was not the Democratic Party nominee. A similar survey of delegates to the 2008 Republican National Convention did not uncover a parallel system of representing marginalized groups within the Republican Party.
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Andrei Boutyline and Robb Willer
University of California Working Paper, February 2014
Abstract:
We predict that people with different political orientations will exhibit systematically different levels of political homophily, the tendency to associate with others similar to oneself in political ideology. Research on personality differences across the political spectrum finds that both more conservative and more politically extreme individuals tend to exhibit greater orientations towards cognitive stability, clarity, and familiarity. We reason that such a "preference for certainty" may make these individuals more inclined to seek out the company of those who reaffirm, rather than challenge, their views. Since survey studies of political homophily face well-documented methodological challenges, we instead test this proposition on a large sample of politically engaged users of the social networking platform Twitter, whose ideologies we infer from the politicians and policy non-profits they follow. As predicted, we find that both more extreme and more conservative individuals tend to be more homophilous than more liberal and more moderate ones.
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An emotional signature of political ideology: Evidence from two linguistic content-coding studies
Michael Robinson, Ryan Boyd & Adam Fetterman
Personality and Individual Differences, December 2014, Pages 98-102
Abstract:
Approach-avoidance frameworks for political ideology have been proposed with increasing frequency. Following such frameworks and a wider motivation-emotion literature, it was hypothesized that political ideology would be predictive of the extent to which anxiety (avoidance-related) versus anger (approach-related) words would be evident in written texts. Study 1 sampled user-generated text within conservative versus liberal Internet chat rooms. After correcting for the greater normative frequency of anger words, a crossover ideology by emotion type interaction was found. Study 2 found a parallel interaction among college students writing about a non-political topic. Political ideology thus has a discrete emotional signature, one favoring anxiety among conservatives and anger among liberals.
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Matthew Thornburg
Electoral Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
How do electoral institutions affect self-identified partisanship? I hypothesize that party registration acts to anchor a person's party identification, tying a person to a political party even when their underlying preferences may align them with the other party. Estimating a random effects multinomial logit model, I find individuals registered with a party are more likely to self-identify with that party and away from the other party. Party registration also affects voting in presidential elections but not in House elections, leading to greater defection in the former where voters have more information about the candidates. These insights illuminate varying rates of electoral realignment, particularly among southern states, and the makeup of primary electorates in states with and without party registration.
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Civility 2.0: A comparative analysis of incivility in online political discussion
Ian Rowe
Information, Communication & Society, forthcoming
Abstract:
In an effort to clean up user comment sections, news organizations have turned to Facebook, the world's largest social network site, as a way to make users more identifiable and accountable for the content they produce. It is hypothesized that users leaving comments via their Facebook profile will be less likely to engage in uncivil and impolite discussion, even when it comes to discussing politically sensitive and potentially divisive issues. By analysing the content of discussion as it occurs in response to political news content on the Washington Post Facebook, and comparing it to that which occurs on the Washington Post website where users are afforded a relatively high level of anonymity, the present study determines the extent to which Facebook increases the level of civility and impoliteness in an area of political discussion renowned for uncivil and impolite communicative behaviour. In line with earlier theories of social interaction, the paper finds that political discussion on The Washington Post website is significantly more likely to be uncivil than discussion of the same content on the Washington Post Facebook page. Moreover, the incivility and impoliteness on the Washington Post website are significantly more likely to be directed towards other participants in the discussion compared to The Washington Post Facebook page.